Regardless of your personal loyalties in the UFC’s welterweight division, you’ve got to feel for Leon Edwards.
The Birmingham man could be considered the odd man out in the 170-pound title picture across the last couple of years, after putting together an eight-fight win streak in the stacked weight category — with the last three of those being impressive wins against Rafael Dos Anjos, Gunnar Nelson and Donald Cerrone.
However, despite a viral run-in with Jorge Masvidal backstage at UFC London more than a year ago failing to yield the big-money fight that some may have expected it to Edwards did manage to score a high profile main event with former champion Tyron Woodley in this year’s UFC London headliner, only for that to fall apart on fight week due to the on-going coronavirus pandemic.
Online squabbles between Edwards and Woodley since seem to suggest that the American is moving on from the potential fight, again leaving Edwards seemingly without a foil at 170-pounds.
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Well, how about Colby Covington then? The brash former title challenger has intimated that he is ready to return to action following his TKO defeat to Kamaru Usman last December and Edwards says that he can be the man to pile on more misery to ‘Chaos’.
“I would love to shut him up. I’ve never liked the guy,” Edwards said of Covington to the South China Morning Post.
“I feel it’s a great match-up. He’s like Usman but less powerful. He’s a pace fighter. He has the cardio, he wants to keep the pace up and break you that way. I think if you don’t let him push you back, he’s quite easy to beat. Technically, he’s just a standard fighter. I’m looking for a title shot. If I have to do one more before the title shot, then Colby or Woodley would be perfect.”
While the Covid-19 crisis has taken a huge toll on the global sports world, UFC boss Dana White is pushing forward with the May 9th card scheduled for Florida and then onto a series of events at the supposed ‘Fight Island’. Whether or not Edwards vs. Covington is among them remains to be seen, but it would certainly be a nice distraction in this uncertain times.
